28

180 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

strength and dexterity. We lingered long in Indiana, and the good effects of
our labors there are felt at this day. I have lately visited Pendleton, now one
of the best republican towns in the State, and looked again upon the spot
where I was beaten down, and have again taken by the hand some of the
witnesses of that scene, amongst whom was the kind, good lady- Mrs.
Hardy—who, so like the good Samaritan of old, bound up my wounds, and
cared for me so kindly. A complete history of these hundred conventions
would fill a volume far larger than the one in which this simple reference is
to find a place. It would be a grateful duty to speak of the noble young men,
who forsook ease and pleasure, as did White, Gay, and Monroe, and endured
all manner of privations in the cause of the enslaved and down-trodden of
my race. Gay, Monroe, and myself are the only ones who participated as
agents in the one hundred conventions who now survive. Mr. Monroe was
for many years consul to Brazil, and has since been a faithful member of
Congress from the Oberlin District, Ohio, and has filled other important
positions in his State. Mr. Gay was managing editor of the National AntiSlavery Standard and afterwards of the New York Tribune, and still later of
the New York Evening Post.

CHAPTER VI.

IMPRESSIONS ABROAD.

Danger to be averted — A refuge sought abroad — Voyage on the steamship "Cambria" — Refusal
of first-class passage — Attractions of the forecastle-deck — Hutchinson family — Invited to
make a speech — Southerners feel insulted — Captain threatens to put them in irons — Experi-
ences abroad — Attentions received — Impressions of different members of Parliament, and of
other public men — Contrast with life in America — Kindness of friends — Their purchase of
my person, and the gift of the same to myself — My return.

As I have before intimated, the publishing of my "Narrative" was regarded
by my friends with mingled feelings of satisfaction and apprehension. They
were glad to have the doubts and insinuations which the advocates and
apologists of slavery had made against me proved to the world to be false,
but they had many fears lest this very proof would endanger my safety, and
make it necessary for me to leave a position which in a signal manner had
opened before me, and one in which I had thus far been efficient in assisting
to arouse the moral sentiment of the community against a system which had
deprived me, in common with my fellow-slaves, of all the attributes of
manhood.